Bohemian Evangelist

Whilst researching bohemian movement of Carmel-by-the-Sea, I came across an interesting article about Aimee McPherson. She was also known as "Sister Aimee", an evangelist and media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s; she was also the founder of the Foursquare Church. After the birth of her son, McPherson suffered from depression and several serious health issues. After this near-death experience in 1913, she promised God she would carry his Word and embarked upon a preaching career in Canada and the U.S.

People began coming in ever-increasing numbers to hear this remarkable female evangelist. When not in a tent, she would need to find the largest auditorium in town in order to hold the record number of people that would come to her meetings. Once in San Diego, the National Guard had to be brought in to control the crowd of over 30,000 people.

In 1916 she made a tour through the southern U.S. in her "Gospel Car", a 1912 Packard touring car; standing in the back seat of the convertible, she would give sermons through a bullhorn.

Aimee was famous both inside and outside of religious circles. Her use of unconventional methods was disparaged, even earning criticism for "her unashamed use of low-key sex appeal to attract converts". Aimee would, at many times, appear before parishioners in a white gown, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

McPherson made the most of the show-business atmosphere of Los Angeles to incorporate entertainment into her religious meetings, using stage props, contemporary music, and morality plays (which she called "illustrations"), with elaborate costumes and scenery, to their best advantage to draw listeners. She even wrote and produced a couple of operas, and at one meeting made a dramatic entrance riding a motorcycle down the aisle of Angelus Temple.

On May 18, 1926, McPherson went to Ocean Park Beach, California, north of Venice Beach with her secretary, to go swimming. Soon after arrival, McPherson disappeared. It was generally assumed at the time that she had drowned; mourners crowded Venice Beach. A futile search for the body resulted in one parishioner drowning, and another diver dying from exposure. About a month after the disappearance, McPherson's mother, Minnie Kennedy, received a ransom note, signed by "The Avengers", which demanded a half million dollars to ensure kidnappers would not sell McPherson into "white slavery". Kennedy later said she tossed the letter away, believing her daughter to be dead.

After 35 days McPherson stumbled out of the desert in Agua Prieta, a Mexican town just across the border from Douglas, Arizona. She claimed that she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured, and held for ransom in a shack in Mexico, then had escaped and walked through the desert for about 13 hours to freedom. Several problems were found with McPherson's story. Her shoes showed no evidence of a 13-hour walk; indeed, they had grass stains on them after a supposed walk through the desert. The shack could not be found. McPherson showed up fully dressed while having disappeared wearing a bathing suit, and was wearing a watch given to her by her mother, which she had not taken on her swimming trip.

A grand jury convened on July 8 to investigate the matter, but adjourned 12 days later citing lack of evidence to proceed. However, several witnesses then came forward stating that they had seen McPherson at various hotels over the 32-day period. McPherson steadfastly stuck to her story that she was approached by a young couple at the beach who had asked her to come over and pray for their sick child, and that she was then shoved into a car and drugged with chloroform. Theories and innuendo abounded: she had run off with a lover; she had had an abortion; she was recovering from plastic surgery; she had staged the whole thing as a publicity stunt. No satisfactory answer, though, was ever reached.

McPherson suffered a nervous breakdown in August 1930 and later she married again, this time to an actor and musician, David Hutton.

However on September 27, 1944, shortly after giving a sermon, she was found dead in her hotel room in Oakland, California of an overdose of prescription barbiturates. Once again, rumors flew, this time conjecturing suicide. However, is generally agreed that the overdose was accidental, as stated on the coroner's report.
Source: Wikipedia